Russell: Baku worst weekend of 2019 for Williams

Jamie Woodhouse
Williams to be compensated for the incident in Baku.

Williams to be compensated for the incident in Baku.

George Russell believes that the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was the worst weekend for Williams so far in 2019.

The Brit kicked off the nightmare in FP1 when a loose drain cover destroyed the underside of his FW42, before the recovery truck struck a bridge, causing oil to pour over the stricken car.

His team-mate Robert Kubica was next to feel the wrath of Baku when he smashed into the barriers at the tight Castle Section during Q1.

Both drivers finished the race but were two laps down on race winner Valtteri Bottas, leading Russell to brand it as the worst showing for Williams this season.

“[Sunday] was slightly better. Overall, Baku has probably been the worst weekend of the year for us,” he told reporters in Baku.

“Our Baku set-up didn’t work as we anticipated.

“So, all our eyes or on Barcelona now and hopefully we will be closer to the pack.”

Kubica served a drive-through penalty after heading out to his pit-lane start too early, something which summed up Baku 2019 for Williams, but the Polish driver credited his team for their work under the difficult circumstances.

“The guys have done an amazing job with the difficult situation we are in,” he explained.

“Additionally my mistake in qualifying really didn’t help, then straight away into turn 2 I get a warning that I was nearly in the wall again, braking is not easy.

“I just tried to bring the car home, I’m happy that I achieved that, but unfortunately we had more issues than in China.

“One part of the car wasn’t really giving me confidence in the first part of the race, I was really bad on the braking.

“I had this feeling already on Friday so we will have to sort at least this because it is taking out my confidence.”

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